Only two numbers matter: buy-ins and cash-outs
A cash game needs no hand-by-hand records. Log exactly two things: every buy-in (including every rebuy the moment it happens) and each player’s chip count when they rack up. A player’s result is simply cash-out minus total buy-ins.
Two iron rules: record every rebuy the second the chips cross the table, and count a player down the moment they leave. Ninety percent of disputes are “I think he rebought” and “nobody counted his stack when he left early.”
The books must balance
The sum of everyone’s cash-outs must equal the sum of everyone’s buy-ins — chips are not created or destroyed. Any gap means a missed rebuy or a miscount, and it is a hundred times easier to find while everyone is still at the table. Tallyo shows this balance live and flags it the moment it drifts from zero.
Settling in the fewest transfers
Settlement never needs everyone paying everyone. Line up winners and losers, have the biggest loser pay the biggest winner, cross off whoever hits zero, repeat — n players always settle in at most n−1 transfers. Tallyo prints exactly this plan when the game ends.